St Joseph’s Original School, later Science Block then in the 70s Blantyre Nursery. Burned down in the 80s

Quick Question. I’m stuck. Where was ‘Blantyre Nursery Centre’ on Glasgow Road. It was ‘formed in 1977 and renovated again in 1979 with an upper floor including tea bar and place for mums to chat’. Was this the old St Joseph’s School Annexe?

Featuring Blantyre Project Social Media with permission. Strictly not for use by others on or offline, our visitors said:

Paul McLauchlin Was this the one that burned down?

James Sime Yeah the old annexe behind the chapel hall. Burned down in 1985/86.

Catherine Devlin Im sure that was the old st josephs annex, used to go in next to chapel hall

Catherine Campbell It was in the St Joseph annex my son went there in 1984

Marnie Marnie Julia Davidson is this where your mum worked?

Julia Davidson Yes! My mum was the Head Teacher here… I spent many a day there and we had the cross from the roof when it burned down.. that was a sad day

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Sharyn Sn Ohhh I went to this nursery xx

Alan Baird there was 2 classes in that building used by calder street secondary in 1973 as the new blantyre high school building was not ready yet

Kevin M. Creechan Used to walk by it all the time, I remember the big Tufty picture in one of the windows.

Thomas Barrett The old science building.

Blantyre Project for the life of me i can’t remember that. Separate building from the actual old St Josephs School? Could you see it from Glasgow Road?

Thomas Barrett Yes big dark building.

Alan Baird yes if you were walking westbound towards the chapel you could see it on Elaine Speirs It was the original senior school of st josephs and was a 2 storey sandstone building next to the chapel

Paul Veverka I’ve written about this building before but didn’t realise it was still standing in 1979. I have no lifetime memory of it at all. I suppose it was easy to miss when you’re Elaine Speirs My neice went to nursery there and hated it!

Dee Williamson It was an annexe to Calder street the year before Blantyre High opened – it was used for science and food & nutrition- at least that’s the subjects I did there in first year!!

James Sime Was an old 2 storey victorian sandstone building. Seperate to the primary school. Right behind the chapel hall.

Paul Veverka Funny enough I’d written about it as a chapel then school but it’s final days were sketchy and I didn’t know it became a nursery after 77. Will look into it’s 70s and early 80s history more. Others have this building being demolished in the 60s!

James Sime I went to that nursery in 1984/85. It got burned down and the nursery moved to the ground floor of the wing in st. Joseph’s at the station road end. My sister went to the nursery when it was in there. The nursery then moved to a new purpose built building in Calder Street in 1991 / 92. My sister was in a photo in the Ham Ad alongside an elected member cutting the first soil with her bucket and spade. That nursery then moved to the current Calderside Nursery in Boswell Drive as the building was bulldozed to make way for the new Calderside Academy.

Blantyre Project James, are you referring to this building, or the one that used to be behind this?Manage

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James Sime Would have been behind this. It was in the playground space behind the current chapel hall.

Blantyre Project James thanks , that makes sense, and why i missed this completely as a child.

Blantyre Project 1936 configuration of buildings

James Sime You had to walk in the Glasgow Road gates of st. Josephs primary and walk to the left around behind the chapel hall. The big old building was in that space there, it just became a larger playground for St. Joseph’s when it was demolished. Was a big creepy old building. Maybe looked a bit like the old auchinraith primary building.

Blantyre Project the building at the back then must have become the St Josephs School Annexe in the late 1950s when St Josephs School was built. The old School Chapel, pictured, demolished in the late 1960s .

James Sime Yeah that makes sense.

Blantyre Project thanks. I’ll take care with this when i write up the north side of Glasgow Road. A complex situation existed at the back there with other school buildings, rooms and cabins too.

James Sime Yeah probably lots of temporary accomodation whilst waiting on the new build.

Carol Goldie Carol McLaughlin was that where u worked when u left college

Carol McLaughlin I did my training there while I was at college xx

Frances McDonald It was the home economics downstairs and science upstairs in the early sixties when I went there then nursery in the mid.seventies.

Maureen Skeffington Chalmers Strathclyde region community education dept also based there including community arts project, special initiative office etc

Blantyre Project Thanks everybody. All the above is enough for me to unravel where this was. It should be enough for me to look into researching the location and events properly for when i post about Glasgow Road North. Lots of complex things going on with several of those old schools buildings, and cabins at the back of there, as well of course as the school and old school /chapel.

Kevin M. Creechan Just noticed that you can clearly see the foundation of the old building when they did the main school demolition. I’m also going to see if I can find any old photos of the nursery. All I recall was at least a large dark building that I had to walk past to go to mass

Kevin M. Creechan This is pretty cool. Looking northwards, you can see everything from the boat pond and swings in the park, right up through an early Park Lane prefabs into St Joseph’s chapel. You can see the old building which became the nursery standing front-right of the chapel.